Luxurious Armenian Backgammon Set - Noah and Mount Ararat

Luxurious Armenian Backgammon Set - Noah and Mount Ararat

Every Armenian grows up with this story. The Ark comes to rest on Ararat, the water goes down, and the world starts again from a mountain you can see from Yerevan on any clear morning. Here that whole idea is laid into a handmade backgammon board in wood inlay, with the workshop's own Mount Ararat outline running across it. You do not need the story explained to you if you are Armenian. If you are not, somebody will explain it before the first game is over.

Inside is a full 23.6" / 60 cm playing field — the size that lets a long evening of nardi breathe, with room for the checkers to stack and no crowding in the home board. The inlay work is the real craft here: pieces of contrasting wood cut and fitted rather than drawn on, which is slower, more expensive and completely unlike a printed surface. It arrives with its pieces, dice and carrying bag.

Every model from this workshop passes through fourteen separate stages and as long as two hundred days, with a different craftsman at each one. On an Armenian backgammon set carrying a subject this important, that time is not indulgence — it is the difference between a picture of a mountain and a piece of work worth putting a family name behind.

What's Included

• Hand-inlaid backgammon board
• Playing pieces
• Dice set
• Carrying bag

Specifications

• Playing field: 23.6 x 23.6" / 60 x 60 cm
• Decorative wood inlay throughout
• Mount Ararat outline
• Made in Armenia by Hrachya Ohanyan

Why You'll Love It

• Noah and Ararat worked in wood inlay, not printed or transferred
• The workshop's own Ararat outline — on no other maker's board
• Full 23.6" / 60 cm field, comfortable for real games
• Made by the workshop of National Master Hrachya Ohanyan

Noah and the Mountain

Ararat has stood on the Armenian skyline and outside the Armenian border since 1921 — photographed daily, unreachable, and carved onto almost everything the country makes. Putting Noah on it turns the mountain from scenery into the beginning of something. It is a good subject for a board where two people sit down and start again from nothing every time.

A Gift Worth Giving

For a father, a grandfather, a family in the diaspora who talk about home. A backgammon board gets used far more often than anything else you could give, and this one carries the mountain with it.